Marc Myers writes daily on jazz legends and legendary jazz recordings

December 13, 2012

Why Jazz Happened (Part 4)

Today, two more video interview segments in support of my new book Why Jazz Happened (University of California Press). [Cover photo by Herb Snitzer]

In the first clip, I talk about the role that the civil rights movement played in the music of Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and other spiritual-jazz artists in the '50s who fused artistic expression with growing frustration over the slow pace of racial equality. The second clip looks at the external forces behind the rise of jazz-rock fusion in the late '60s.

Here's tenor saxophonist Yusef Lateef on pp. 154-55 of Why Jazz Happened on John Coltrane and the importance of the harp...

"John was very introspective. I remember in the late '50s, when critics began to call his arpeggios 'sheets of sound,' I knew where he was coming from. When I'd visit John uptown, he had a harp in his apartment that his wife Naima had bought for him. [Pictured above: John Coltrane]

"By pressing the pedals, you could create a glissando that was like sheets of sound. John told me he was interpreting that harp sound on the saxophone and was fascinated by how different those runs sounded on the saxophone compared with the harp. He integrated the harp's sound into his music.

"The harp was a spiritual instrument in a religious sense. This music we expressed was part curiosity but also a reaction to what was happening. You couldn't avoid the civil rights movement back then."

About

Marc Myers writes on music and the arts for The Wall Street Journal. He is author of "Why Jazz Happened" (Univ. of California Press). Founded in 2007, JazzWax is a Jazz Journalists Association's "Blog of the Year" winner.